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A company from California called AOptix has landed a deal with the Department of Defense for a biometric identification system that it produces. This biometry identification system loads on a smartphone and is shown in the image below embedded in a mockup device. The tool hopes to allow soldiers in the field to record facial features, iris scans, and other details of suspicious people up close or from a distance.

The Defense Department awarded a $3 million research contract to the California company to examine its Smart Mobile Identity biometrics identification package. The contract is over two years and at the end of the contract term the Department of Defense wants to see research to validate the concept the company is offering. Under the contract, AOptix will provide the DOD with the hardware peripheral and software solution able to turn commercially available smartphones into biometric scanning devices.

The hardware and software combination should be able to turn the industry available smartphones into something capable of scanning and transmitting data from the eyes, face, phones, and voice of a person of interest. Current systems the US military uses for recording biometric data require a soldier to bring the camera system very close to the subject. The new Smart Mobile Identity system has some ability to record this biometry data at a distance and has better specifications than the current Handheld Interagency Identity Detection System in use today.

The company plans to produce an accessory solution that will wrap around an existing phone to add biometry capabilities. The company hasn’t fully described the peripheral but does note that it shouldn’t impact the phones form factor significantly. The company goes so far as to say that a smartphone using its sensing device would weigh under a pound and only need one hand to operate.

[via Wired]

Defense Department signs deal for a smartphone tool to scan biometrics is written by Shane McGlaun & originally posted on SlashGear.
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A new swallowable pill has been trialled with 50 firefighters in Australia, aimed at monitoring body temperatures and other vital readings when working under extreme conditions. Using Equivital’s EQ02 LifeMonitor capsule, the pill transmits metrics to a device housed on the chest. This then sends data on skin temperature, heart rate and respiration rate to an external computer. If a firefighter’s core body temperature is increasing too quickly, they can then be moved from the frontline to a recovery area, hopefully reducing accidents and deaths caused by heat exhaustion.

Until now, the standard method involved measuring body temperatures through the ear, but this new method — which was also used to monitor Felix Baumgartner’s 23-mile drop to Earth — offers a faster, more effective way of monitoring multiple vital signs. Research has so far focused on monitoring a firefighters’ core temperature when they’ve been exposed to temperatures between from -3 to 124 degrees Celsius for about 20 minutes, but according to News.com.au, testing will continue on the Equivital capsules, with temperatures likely to go as high as 600 degrees Celsius — about 1,100 degrees Fahrenheit. We’re just hoping that electrical firewands are next on the list.

Filed under: Science, Alt

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Via: PopSci

Source: News.au.com

While Apple has flirted with biometric-based patents before, we’ve yet to see them implemented in real-world technology. That hasn’t stopped it from filing yet another one though, as the latest application reveals a fingerprint sensor apparently embedded into the iPhone itself. The patent describes a hardware “window” that can become selectively “transparent or opaque.” When transparent, it would reveal a component comprised of an “image capture device, a strobe flash, a biometric sensor, a light sensor, a proximity sensor, or a solar panel, or a combination thereof” as a method of unlocking the phone. According to the filing, the biometric sensor in question might indeed be a fingerprint reader. The document goes on to describe an alternative method using face or eye recognition technology that can be used not just for security purposes, but for possible e-commerce solutions like completing an online transaction. Of course, take any of these patent applications with a generous pinch of salt — we haven’t seen an Apple stylus yet, for example — but perhaps this is the reason Apple bought fingerprint sensor maker AuthenTec back in July.

Filed under: Cellphones, Apple

Apple files patent application for fingerprint sensor that can be transparent or opaque originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 12 Oct 2012 04:51:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Wouldn’t it be great if fitness and medical gadgets automatically knew who was wearing them? Researchers from Dartmouth have come up with a new way to provide health monitors just such an ability using a tiny electric current and a bioimpedance sensor. You see, each person’s body provides a different amount of opposition to electrical current, so bioimpedance can be a unique biometric identifier. The researchers’ idea is to create a bracelet that uses bioimpedance readings to recognize its wearer in a secure, unobtrusive manner and communicate that identity to other wearable devices.

Using such a bracelet, “the devices discover each other’s presence, recognize that they are on the same body (and transitively learn from the wrist device whose body), develop shared secrets from which to derive encryption keys, and establish reliable and secure communications.” As opposed to other biometrics or password authentication, bioimpedance readings can be taken passively, which is much more appealing than remembering passcodes or scanning fingerprints and retinas. For now, the researchers have created an eight-electrode proof-of-concept bracelet, but its accuracy leaves something to be desired — it correctly identifies its wearer only 80 to 90 percent of the time, whereas fingerprint recognition has a failure rate of less than 1 in 1,000. So, we’re a ways off from bioimpedance-based security, but research is ongoing, and you can learn all about it at the source below.

Filed under: Wearables, Science

Researchers use bioimpedance as a biometric, let health monitor devices know who you are originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 09 Aug 2012 20:29:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It’s no secret that everyone has a unique swagger — so much so it can be used for identification. Many are working on this for biometric security, including a team at Carnegie Mellon University and Autonomous ID, who are collaborating on shoe insoles that monitor pressure and gait to confirm the identity of the wearer. So far, tests have shown a detection rate above 99 percent within just three steps, meaning they can alert you before that opportunist even makes it out of the locker room. It’s thought the cloud-connected BioSoles could be implemented in security access, although we’re not sure this offers advantages over similar, static technology also in development. We do, however, like the idea that subtle changes in your strut could be used to provide early indications of conditions such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and diabetes. It’s likely that the insoles won’t be available any time soon, so until then, keep an eagle eye on those expensive kicks.

Continue reading BioSoles know you’re you within three steps, deter shoe bandits

Filed under: Wearables, Science

BioSoles know you’re you within three steps, deter shoe bandits originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 23 Jul 2012 12:41:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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